A senior Palestinian security source has said the Spanish citizen abducted on Monday by unknown gunmen was freed later the same day.

The source told Xinhua that after being held for seven hours the Spanish aid worker Roberto Villa Sexto, 32, who'd been abducted by unknown militants in central Gaza Strip, "was freed unharmed and there are preparations to get him out of Gaza Strip."

No one claimed responsibility for the abduction who works for a humanitarian organization in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian police reported on Monday afternoon that unknown masked militants abducted a Spanish citizen who worked for a non-government organization called "Cooperation for Peace" in central Gaza.

The police said the militants obstructed a car being driven on Sallah el-Dein road near the city of Deirel-Ballah in central Gaza Strip. The Spaniard was in the car together with his French female colleague and driver, said police.

Eyewitnesses said that the militants forced the Spaniard out of the car, put him into another vehicle and drove away to an area in southern Gaza Strip. They left the woman and the driver.

This is second abduction of a foreigner within a week in the Gaza Strip. A Spanish photographer, working for Associated Press, was abducted last week by militants but released after a few hours.

(Xinhua News Agency October 31, 2006)